Well that didn't take long. Mere day after Russia announced its ban on Western nation food imports, European countries are scrambling (as we explained why here). Greece has already expressed dismay, but now Spanish officials will meet with EU leaders to discuss offsetting the country’s estimated up to $800 million in food and agriculture losses due to sanctions. Poland is pissed and has complained to the WTO claiming "Russia has broken international law in both its embargo;" and Finland's largest dairy producer has announced 800 layoffs due to the sanctions. When does Europe tell Washington - enough!

Spanish Agriculture Minister Isabel Garcia Tejerina said the restrictions have prompted her ministry to convene a meeting with the European Commission in Brussels on Thursday.

...

The Spanish government has estimated that agricultural losses will amount to €337 million, or about 1.8 percent of Spanish exports. Other groups, like Spain’s opposition Socialist Party, have estimated the losses to be higher- €581 million.

Last year, 37,000 tons of tomatoes, 35,000 tons of peaches, and 33,000 tons of mandarin oranges were exported from Spain to Russia, according to Spain’s Small Farmer’s Association (UPA).

“The decision that was adopted involves many political issues that exist between Russia and the European Union, and not just the EU. As a result, it may be necessary to compensate us for these political decisions - the producers who work all year and want to at least be paid enough at least to cover production costs,” Lorenzo Ramos, Secretary General of UPA, told RT.

The largest Finnish dairy producer Valio send a forced leave of the staff with factories working for export to Russia. This is stated in the message of concern.

Restructuring will affect Finnish enterprises' Valio: Plant in Haapavesi ( cheese Oltermanni), Seinäjoki ( oil Valio), Vantaa ( cream cheese Viola) and warehouse in Lappeenranta. Concern revise employment contracts of all the employees of these companies. " Some of the staff ( according to preliminary estimates, 800 people) can go on forced leave to fully clarify the situation, with a portion of employees will not be renewed temporary employment contracts, "- said in a statement.

Poland's agriculture minister went on television to announce the country was taking action against Russia's new import ban. "We believe Russia has broken international law in both its embargo against Poland and its embargo against the EU," Marek Sawicki said.

Russia banned the import of Polish fruit and vegetables in early August - a move Sawicki said would cost Poland 0.6 percent of GDP.

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"If a WTO member state believes another WTO member state has taken a measure that is not in conformity with WTO rules, the affected WTO member state may request mediation," attorney and WTO expert Eric Pickett said.

And the Czechs are in for some EU assistance...

*ZEMAN BACKS EU AID TO CZECH AGRICULTURAL COS. AFTER SANCTIONS

* * *

S&P 500 nears all-time highs as US companies do not seem to suffer at all... We are sure Merkel is watching carefully.

Was your hearing aid broken when the usual troupe of Republicans were calling for arming the Kurds, not to mention the Syrian opposition, and renewing bombing, helped by right wing media douchebags like Krauthammer? Did you forget who started the Iraq war in the first place?

Poland is pissed and has complained to the WTO claiming "Russia has broken international law in both its embargo;"

Fuck you Poland you fucking cunts - not happy with fucking with Germany's reasonable request for her city and people back - because you had a war guarantee from England?

How'd that work out for ya?

Such a bitch country wanting to play in the big leagues yet hiding behind England and now NATO, tweaking the nose of their betters while cravenly relying on alliances to prevent repercussions ... and now whining because the Rooskies won't just roll over and take it?

Indeed! Brazil has started construction of 8 new meat packing plants to service the Russia market. Many thousands of new jobs will go to Brazilian workers and families will earn a living. Brazil would be insane to throw that away because Obama is a cunt!

Last month, I posted on some some things that were flying under the radar, and many people did not really grasp the implications. Well, here is one specific and tangible example of the BRICS/UNASUR summit and some of the things I discussed.

As crazy as it sounds, I believe you are actually understating the numbers by quite a bit, If the numbers from Brazil’s Association of Meat Exporters are accurate, it is a hell of a lot more than just "8 new meat packing plants".

Even the propagandistic MSM cannot ignore it and find themselves forced to report on this.

Wait for the numbers from Argentina, which is another big food producer with a huge excess capacity for production. They will certainly have similar, (and I personally believe even greater) and absolutely eye-popping numbers coming out.

As a slight digression, I will point out to any active ZH investor that they might consider getting ahead of the curve and invest in those enterprises which will benefit from this explosive growth in trade. These numbers will continue to soar until the supply/demand reaches some semblance of equilibrium, and we are very far from that right now...

In any case, Latin American countries such as Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, and even subjugated Mexico (WTF!) are racing to fill the EU void. The EU is vociferously protesting, but the Latin American countries will promptly tell the spineless Euro lackeys to go cry to their Uncle Sam about it and blow it out their collective asses.

This is no joke; tectonic plates are moving fast and the ground is shifting. It kinda reminds me of the old Russian proverb-

Russians take their time to saddle the horses, but they ride awfully fast!

Well, Vladimir Vladimirovich just put one in the EU's kneecap, a full 20 feet away from the knife.

Poland, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia are already dead. It falls to the EU to deal with the corpses now.

Several other countries are in cardiac arrest right now. Italy, Spain, Greece, Finland, Bulgaria, Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, and Belgium, and yes, even though they will keep a stiff upper lip, the "United Kingdom" (who is about to lose more than 1/3 of it's national territory).

It falls upon the EU to provide first aid and keep them alive. Unfortunately, the EMTs that are tasked with providing CPR and mortuary services (Germany, France) are experiencing tachycardia and hyperventilating.

Putin is very clearly demonstrating to the EU what a "boomerang" is, and what it does.

The bottom line is this: very few nations are still attracted to the AngloZionist imperial model, and very few are still frightened by it. The result is the kind of collaboration (never shown on the MSM, of course) which you can see in this report [VIDEO at link above - 07:47 with English captioning, courtesy of the Russian team of The Vineyard of the Saker] . Enjoy!

I believe the origins of this quote came from atheists who use it against young earth creationists (YECs) who debate the age of the earth on YouTube and site the Bible as definitive proof and then claim themselves victors of the debate. Don't quote me on that.

there's buyers out there...take a basket of goods and services that EU nations may or may not have sold to Russia and can't now, put a theoretical value on it, collatoralize the basket of goods and services with Polish apples and Finnish milk and sell it to Norwegian pension funds as a bond. Create a derivative and ETF on the these baskets, rehypothecate the Polish apples, blow up bubble enticing new buyers.

Winston - You are so right on that. The fishermen on Cape Cod during the 70's and 80's would sell their entire catch to Soviet trawlers while out on the Grand Banks for Russion goods such as barrels, vodka, gear, etc. I think that most of the plastic food grade barrels that were in use at the Chatham fish pier and on the boats of the Chatham fleet were all Soviet made.

Ronald Reagan signed a huge wheat export deal to the Soviet Union. No republican complained then, in fact republican farmers were delighted with Reagan for being pragmatic and a booster of farm exports. If RR could see the light, then any real Ameircan should accept trade as above petty political war mongering.

You should know that former Soviet Russia had supplied the former western Europe with gas/oil....but you are right, Germany and Austria is not everyone.

In the early 1980s there were American efforts, led by the Reagan administration, to convince European countries through which a proposed Soviet gas pipeline was to be built to deny firms responsible for construction the ability to purchase supplies and parts for the pipeline and associated facilities. The pipeline was built despite these protests and the rise of large Russian gas firms such as Gazprom as well as increased Russian fossil fuel production has facilitated a large expansion in the quantity of gas supplied to the European market since the 1990s.

when the fed stops printing money and buying peripheral bonds. there has never been a taper. now, they're simply lying about how much they print. its not like the taxpayer will ever get an audit of the Fed. so, those fucks can do whatever they want.

Hey, Poland, you have such valid reasons for complaining. Blowback is such a bitch:

Poland’s Role in Destabilizing Ukraine: Polish Military Trained Neo-Nazi Militants for EuroMaidan Protests

Polish media outlet Nie has published a bombshell account about direct Polish involvement in Ukraine’s destabilization. Its source alleges that the Polish Foreign Ministry had invited Ukrainian militants into the country and trained them outside of Warsaw in September 2013.

Lets recall that the original Polish government was against the EU and their Bolshevik owners but all went down in flames in a plane crash. Presto chango the `new' government agreed to the New Bolshevik agenda.

Meanwhile, there are reports indicating that western cooperation with Right Sector goes back some time. According to a report in the Polish weekly Nie(“No”), published by 80-year-old journalist Jerzy Urban, the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski invited 86 members of Right Sector to an intensive, four-week training course at the Police Training Centre Legionowo near Warsaw last September.

The fascists were trained in crowd management, person recognition, combat tactics, command skills, behaviour in crisis situations, protection against gases used by police, erecting barricades, and especially shooting, including the handling of sniper rifles. The training was officially described as “student exchange.”

The visit took place a full two months before the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an Association Agreement with the EU on 21 November—the event that triggered the Maidan protests. If the report in Nie is true, it shows that the events leading up to the regime change in Kiev were a carefully planned provocation.

The Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski has close links to ruling circles of the USA. He is married to the right-wing American journalist Anne Applebaum and was director of the Atlantic Initiative at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, starting in 2002.

This is why I love the internet - access to documents almost in real time. WW2 was much simpler. Allies - good, Axis bad. I'm more than sure that the amount of shit going on at the time was no smaller than today. All textures and flavors of bullshit flowing in both directions.

America being #1 investor in Germany with big 5 pouring half the capital into ramping up of the war machine? Not a squeak!

Sides were also blurry. Not all Germans supported Nazi's, but being an anti-Nazi was like drumming for Dixie Chicks post 9/11.

Nobody was sure how things would turn out. A good portion of Brits didn't know whether to fly the national banner or learn German.

It's only after the 1944 where the outcome was starting to become more or less obvious people started taking sides: "Oh yeah! I was alway on the winning side!" Only those implicated by documents, photographs and testimonies couldn't wiggle their way out.

Alliances form pre-war. Many Allies were behind Germany prior to 1937. These days nations line up behind the mighty American will, but who knows. Should BRICS bomb the rest into submission economically, "Go Russia" t-shirts might start flying off the shelves just as quickly. People are likely to bet on the perceived winner. It ain't Russia yet. The focus is on "yet".

'Nie' is the worst tabloid of all, terrible info source. 80 year old journalist (urban) is old KGB puppet who will say anything to discredit right wing patriots. Poland is poor country and if you would say something about Polish mercenaries to the people there they would just lough. It is not US The army man make about 1000$ a month. Go and tell him to go to Ukraine and get killed for pennies. There are no contractors for army(like in US) it is all done by military which is so small and weak right now that would be suicidal for them to even touch Russia.

All these countries need to join the ABF, the Anti-Bolshevik Federation, close their Israeli embassy and deport immediately all zionist dual-citizens and call for a world court tribunal for war crimes and reparations against the zionist madmen.

What a bunch of whiny bitches. If you don't want your food to be banned there then complain about the sanctions against Russia. Oh wait, can't do that since that'd mean *gasp* telling Obombya & Co to go fuck themselves and mind their damn business.

Only the human species could be so clueless to think someone will just sit there and take being kicked in the balls and not retaliate.

Trust these European socialists to go crying for a bailout. Tough luck assholes, time for blowback. I remember when I was in South Africa and Europe used to gloat over the sanctions it imposed on the apartheid regime (bad regime I know, I am not justifying it).

Anyone have a picture of the Waaahbulance? WtF did you expect? That the lies that Washington told you would be true? Can you not speak neoconalese? Sanctions will not hurt TPTB, just the proles. And in the appended words of the infamous Victoria Nuland..."fuck the EU 'proles'".

And in further news, a new weather system has formed, it is a catagory 3 Blowback from the east traveling west. Soon to be upgraded.

Can someone explain to me why Russia with probably twice the flat black soil as the US and a climate that matches central Illinois with half our worthless population is unable to produce internally all the meat and dairy products it needs and have a giant surplus for export.

Vlad, if you are having a hard time accomplishing this I know plenty of young guys in their 20's and 30's who would love the opportunity to move to Russia and establish food production operations.

Vlad, you could be the beef and veal king of Europe in addition to being called GasPutin.

LOL. I have been watching and waiting for the "failing health" announcements for 2 years now. I thought it was going to be the reason he didn't run for term 2 but they made the poor bastard campaign anyway. I guess they gave him carte Blanche for vacations in return.

Indeed. Perhaps the only thing more shocking than the Imperialist position of the US, is the Boot-licking, ass-kissing going on by European "leaders" and its equally compromised MSM.

Although the European populace is infinitely more informed than 95% of 'Mericans, I have yet to see them getting off their comfy asses and actually DO something. If Greece and Spain are indicative of the rest, it's gonna be a cold winter for many.

TYLER: I LOVE THE SERVICE AND I'M NOT AGAINST SERVICES MAKING MONEY BUT THE BANK OF MONTREAL AD IS A REAL PAIN IN THE ASS. IF YOU TRY TO CLOSE THE AD AS INDICATED IT TAKES YOU TO THE BMO SITE. AND IF YOU JUST LEAVE IT ALONE IT DARKENS THE SCREEN WHICH IS TOUGH FOR AN OLD MAN OF 52 TO SEE;IT DRIVES ME MAD

INSTEAD OF WANTING ME TO LEARN ABOUT BMO'S'INVESTMENT 'TIPS' ,THE LOSS OF TIME AS WELLAS THE BILE RECONGESTED INTO MY SENSITIVE STOMACH JUST , PARADOXICALLY, MAKES ME NOT TO, 'LIKE', BMO,AS COMMERCIALS SHOULD BE ABOUT; BUT RATHER TO I VAGUELY DESIRE TO HURT BMO SOMEHOW AFTER THEY HAVE 'HURT' ME.

IT DOESN'T HELP MUCH THAT BMO/NESBITT-BURNS FUCKED ME ROYALLY, HURTFULLY AND RUTHLESSLY IN THE LATE 1990'S IN A MINING DEAL......

'Nesbitt/Burns, small Vancouver shyster'-they were legion in those days. Although 'one small Vancouver shyster' did hammer me into Diamet when it was 50 cents/share so I can't complain too much about those Irish punters..........

Firefox/Palemoon are quite customisable. Palemoon has several functions removed that many people don't need/use. eg: parental control: http://www.palemoon.org/technical.shtml So it runs a tad faster than the regular FF.

Everyone seems to think Putin will just turn the crank in early September and slow the gas flow.

Doing a brute force cut-off is not in the cards and is not in Gazprom's best interest. You don't want to force EUR to conserve or look elsewhere for gas, it detracts from your bottom line.

I wonder what he will do next.

He may just want to secure his piece of Ukraine and keep NATO off. EUR will have to live with that. If EUR allows the treasonous, mad cow US Govt to gin up a war, they deserve to pay more and/or freeze their a$$es a little; but EUR is a better player at realpolitick, certainly superior to the Zionist/Xtian/LGBT clown squad occupying the White House and Senate.

"Doing a brute force cut-off is not in the cards and is not in Gazprom's best interest. You don't want to force EUR to conserve or look elsewhere for gas, it detracts from your bottom line. I wonder what he will do next."

He will have intermittent "disruptions" cause intermittent supply issues that he will blame on the situation in the Ukraine and on the belligerent coup-government in the Ukraine.. This will run up the price and profits for the Russians while simultaneously causing fear and anger to reverberate through western and eastern Europe. The sour mood of western Europeans will undermine the DC US' and Israel's propaganda over the Ukraine and push the eastern European countries closer to Russia.

I think Putin will fake 'to turn the gas off' in the fall to get paid the arrears on what's owed for the gas now, the Ukraine (IMF) will pay, then the gas will flow again (at a higher price per unit , mind you)and around March next year when it warms up a little Ukraine will stiff Putin again....

The attitude of the Warsaw regime seems to be "Screw you Russia, we're backing our Nazi friends in Kiev.......oh wait, it's costing us 0.6% of GDP? waaaaaah waaaaaaah, WTO help us please, Russia is so mean!"